COMMUNITY POLL: Rare Monthly Pets

[answrs]

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Another concern I have: the front post doesn't give the NYE dog, or even the Valentines lioness as an example. It uses the August PPS. something a cursory search has listed as being traded around at .5 NONS. so right now this thread kinda reads to me like "hey, how about we release a new zebra-level pet every month mkay?" and people saying it'll be great for newbies somehow.

like, I've gotten offers of multiple uncommon 2018 (or earlier) for the remotest vaguely-more-uncommon flower dog pps from a few months ago, as well as the cat pps of same, and I'm not even going into the offers I fielded for the rainbowmane lion pps. and that's a regular occurrence for many pets that wind up just common/uncommon compared to their litter's very commons! add in the state of the FTT, with people spending days if not weeks trying to get a reply, or getting a... not so great advice, let's say - and that's if your newbie even know it exists! it's gonna wind up with SO many ninja trades instead of getting them generous offers for an otherwise easy-enough pet to get again later on.

"it's just a game! it needs a challenge!" some of us are adults or even adults with young children that play. not everything has to be a metroidvania. you can enjoy the genre of course, but sometimes people prefer to play animal crossing to de-stress and that's okay. you can grind for 6 million bells a week on the stalk market, terraform your island to perfection and get all the best villagers - trading for rares list pets through hard work - and that's perfectly fine way to play, and others can go around and pick up pretty fruit and put up decorations we like - get the monthlies and not worry much about higher pets, trade for hoards, etc.

[Panne]

I don't really understand the argument that it will make trading harder for newbies - right now, their only avenue to get rares is wait for an event or December 18th once a year.

That's not their only avenue. There's the pound, giveaways, gifts, and the free adoptions thread. I managed to get a few rares plus a very rare within a few days of making my account. It's not super easy though.

I guess I should have worded this part a little better, thats my fault! While the pound and giveaways are great resources for sure, both of those rely on more factors than just pure rng. If you have a bad connection or get to the pound opening a single second late, getting rare pound pets is very difficult, if not near impossible. Giveaways are also generous, but unless its a raffle type where numbers are drawn, you pretty much have to be there as soon as the topic is made, or else everything of worth is taken. Things like events and monthlies have a very relaxed time limit and are not dependant on competition with others, which is what I was getting at. It's an even playing field with a consistent chance that only takes into account your personal rng.

And I said this in my post before, to address more knowledgable players taking advantage of newbies for these rare outcomes, I believe there could be a warning or a note of some kind to let players know that "Hey, this litter has a possible rare outcome! Be careful when trading!" or something along those lines.

I can see an issue with that where people could be more stringent with their doubles because they know that one of them could be rare. And then when people notice that a pet seems to be more difficult to get, they know that it's likely one of those "august PPS" equivalents and so they inflate the heck out of it. Also CS is vehemently against transparency so they may not consider putting a warning anyway.

When the August PPS released, there was a lot of demand for it, this is true. It was not remotely as rare as a zebra though. However, a lot of people also were helping on the fair trade thread and advising users that they shouldn't pay list pets for it. Sure, some people were willing to pay an advent pet or a low september for one because they were impatient. Most users, including myself, were able to trade for one fairly easily with a few 2010-2011 rares, which, back then weren't worth as much as they are today. It's easy to forget that the trading economy was way different than it is today, with a much smaller pool of pets to trade. Unless the planned rare outcomes they release are similar to zebras, I really don't see a reality where it would immediately go for even a quarter of a non upon release on average. There might be some users wanting to squeeze that much value out of it, but I am doubtful that it would catch on in a meaningful way. The other variable is that the August PPS is a lion, which has always had more demand than other species. I imagine not every single rare monthly will be a lion, so individual value and demand will fluctuate wildly depending on design and species. Although who really knows at this point. I'll eat my words if that end up happening, which is why I support the trial period.
Also, I don't think it's fair to say that putting a warning up is the same as, say, releasing exact pets counts transparency wise. Lately, it also looks like there has been more effort by staff to be more transparent about things the community wants to see, and there have been efforts in recent years to reduce scamming/taking advantage of the economy.

I also think its a little... odd that a lot of the negative opinions of this change are driven by fear of demand. I completely, 100% understand and agree that demand is way out of hand. But that's just never going to change, regardless of what changes the site makes. It's a community creation and it's not something even admins can address. Even monthly and event outcomes that don't turn out rare are sometimes overpayed for like crazy. I don't think it's really fair to dismiss this suggestion solely on this basis, as it happens and will happen regardless of whether or not this change is implemented.

That's true but unreasonable demand is what makes the game suck sometimes, and people are afraid of it getting worse. We already have to deal with greedy demand for old pets, but to have to deal with it with monthlies more often would add more stress.
The update would definitely make things more interesting though, but I think there should be a weighing of pros and cons.

I agree that there will be people who try to get as much as they can out of these rare pets. But like I said, it's kind of unfair to deny the people who would be happy to adopt these pets just because of something that we can't control unless we somehow collectively agree to stop unrealistic demand. Any economy runs on demand to a point. Stagnation does not help demand. If nothing new like this is added, I'd argue that demand is going to get exponentialy worse as those special release monthlies get older and older as time goes by with no way to get new ones. Plus, in a game centered around trading and collecting, rare pets create more wealth as a whole instead of just shuffling around existing rare pets.

I appreciate the discussion and inputs different from my own, though. Discussions like these are really helpful to get a better gauge at how users think and handle things.

[Nicnova]

As an older user, I have much support for this idea.

A rare outcome in a monthly litter is usually unique, and a nice design, which makes it fun. Also, when rare outcomes happen they are NOT valued as the August PPS Lion right away. It took years for the August PPS to get to the value that it is now. Back when it was released, a majority of people paid a 10' rare or less and were done with it. These pets have the potential to increase immensely in value over time, but it definitely won't happen right away. It has no comparison to Zebra releases.

For a lot of people, trading is what makes this game fun. Without the aspect of collecting pets, I wouldn't be here. And I don't need every pet handed to me, because where's the fun in that? Also, this will not hurt new players, it can only help them. They don't get the pet? Oh well, there's 5 billion 2008 OMGSRs they have to work for years to get anyway, so what's the difference. This new rare will only be easier to obtain than those pets. They get the pet? Nice, now they have a pet that an older user may overpay for to keep up with their collection. Or they could keep it for their own collection and have a nice rare. If I was a new player, the sheer amount of pets in this site would already be overwhelming. These new pets would be one tiny speck of dust in the grand scheme of things.

[Lacuna]

A big reason this poll is occurring is that it is something that was seen over and over in user discussion threads as a possibility, and there was no real centralized way to get the majority of people's opinions on it. There are a lot of players who will not get deeply involved in a discussion thread or navigate to the suggestions board on their own, but who will participate in a poll like this. I haven't voted in the poll (even though it was actually me that wrote the options, as your suggestion to site owner liaison) because this is more about seeing what users want than what I or any staff member personally wants. We hope to do more polls like this in the future for various site improvements and features!

[TANKMEN]

A big reason this poll is occurring is that it is something that was seen over and over in user discussion threads as a possibility, and there was no real centralized way to get the majority of people's opinions on it. There are a lot of players who will not get deeply involved in a discussion thread or navigate to the suggestions board on their own, but who will participate in a poll like this. I haven't voted in the poll (even though it was actually me that wrote the options, as your suggestion to site owner liaison) because this is more about seeing what users want than what I or any staff member personally wants. We hope to do more polls like this in the future for various site improvements and features!

these polls have been genuinely awesome and have made me more interested in CS again as a whole, knowing the team is actively addressing the problems with trading and trying to implement features the community has suggested. thank you for doing them, and i hope we see more!

[chaotic creativity]

as someone who is more of a casual collector, it seems like a fun idea to bring a little excitement to the site during the gaps between events. i don't recall having much issue at all trading for the valentine's lioness or the golden gacha dog from recent times, i received both with relatively fair trades. i also feel that if the admins were up front about the chance for a rare pet every now and then, the demand wouldn't go absolutely bananas because people are expecting it as opposed to it being more along the lines of "oh my god, new rare, have to find it". honestly, i tend to wait these demand spikes out and stroll my way into a fair trade once it has leveled and have very few issues. there's no harm in waiting an extra month or two to add a pet to your collection!

i do support the idea of a trial period, but that may be me wanting to analyze how the community reacts to knowing it'll happen as opposed to complete and total surprise. yes, there are downsides. but, hey, there's always downsides to everything! c:

also, @Lacuna, much love to you for being that person for us! it's been very refreshing to see more activity on the staff side of things in this aspect, and it's made me enjoy the pet collecting aspect more!

[Calix]

"it's just a game! it needs a challenge!" some of us are adults or even adults with young children that play. not everything has to be a metroidvania. you can enjoy the genre of course, but sometimes people prefer to play animal crossing to de-stress and that's okay. you can grind for 6 million bells a week on the stalk market, terraform your island to perfection and get all the best villagers - trading for rares list pets through hard work - and that's perfectly fine way to play, and others can go around and pick up pretty fruit and put up decorations we like - get the monthlies and not worry much about higher pets, trade for hoards, etc.

At the same time though- if you play casually, you should expect casual results, which means not collecting everything you might ideally want. It seems a little like having your cake and eating it too. Like if someone only picked up fruit, planted flowers, etc but also expected to get all the ideal villagers they want.

[foxcloud19]

A big reason this poll is occurring is that it is something that was seen over and over in user discussion threads as a possibility, and there was no real centralized way to get the majority of people's opinions on it. There are a lot of players who will not get deeply involved in a discussion thread or navigate to the suggestions board on their own, but who will participate in a poll like this. I haven't voted in the poll (even though it was actually me that wrote the options, as your suggestion to site owner liaison) because this is more about seeing what users want than what I or any staff member personally wants. We hope to do more polls like this in the future for various site improvements and features!

These are so appreciated! I also hope to see more in the future!

[bee]

as someone who is more of a casual collector, it seems like a fun idea to bring a little excitement to the site during the gaps between events. i don't recall having much issue at all trading for the valentine's lioness or the golden gacha dog from recent times, i received both with relatively fair trades. i also feel that if the admins were up front about the chance for a rare pet every now and then, the demand wouldn't go absolutely bananas because people are expecting it as opposed to it being more along the lines of "oh my god, new rare, have to find it". honestly, i tend to wait these demand spikes out and stroll my way into a fair trade once it has leveled and have very few issues. there's no harm in waiting an extra month or two to add a pet to your collection!




this^^^ i see a lot of freaking out about another release that causes huge buzz and high demand, but if it's expected then the possibility of it being overhyped is pretty died down. it's just fun, it'd get me (and hopefully others) back into monthly collecting, rather than just being active during events.

i do understand the concern of new players getting their rares swiped, but there could just be more warning about trading your pets as a fresh user. that already happens every december 18th, that possibility will always be there, but i personally think that cs's fanbase is growing up and there should be some consideration for more veteran users.

[DrBubby]

I fully support the idea of a guaranteed rare in one litter a month! It would give new players a boost, and I feel like more rares being released would lessen some of the intense inflation the community has been suffering from for years